Blackwolf Rants About a Telethon's Future, and Other TV Matters of Interest

For the first time since numbering myself amongst its more loyal supporters, I have, frankly, begun to fear for the future of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. As it stands now, the Telethon is no longer the national experience that it once was. There was a time in days of old when we took the Telethon as seriously as we now do the Super Bowl or the World Series. Alas, we have a tendency now to take the Telethon for granted; from a 2010 standpoint, the show is only a Vegas shadow, clad in the trappings of a primetime television special. Physically, Jerry himself is no longer the comic genius Paramount Pictures was forever celebrating when he turned his energies toward a solo film career. More to the point, of the Telethon's cast of principal celebrities, many of them, Ed McMahon most notably, are either already deceased or are on the verge of dying.

And as far as the New York/New Jersey Metro Area portion of the Telethon is concerned, I begin to wonder how much more committed WWOR-TV is to the show. For all intents and purposes, My9, as they dare to call themselves these days, is pretty much "the other Fox New York station." So much so, in fact, that they have taken to running infomercials on Saturday mornings from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Really, that is little more than an excuse to induce the viewer into a snoozefest the proportions of which your Dragonmaster dare not comprehend --- and believe me, children, I have been involved in my share of snoozefests!

The bottom line, dearests, is that Saturday morning doesn't live here anymore. There have been so many shows we once used to watch and enjoy that I seriously doubt if there's a real future for what entertainment really means. Mary Hart's recent announcement of her retirement from Entertainment Tonight at the end of the show's 30th Anniversary Season reminds me that our industry and those who allegedly are supposed to be "in the know" about it are fast becoming (gulp!) dinosaurs. And even dear Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are becoming so wafer-thin we can't locate any serious news anymore.

Now, your Dragonmaster and others like me have to blog and/or tweet --- or, sometimes, scramble about the whole of New York City --- just to pursue the latest entertainment news. That I'm kvetching about all this for you should express to you my feelings about what television's future truly is: It is, like so much else in show business, a constant quest for power. I'm just lucky that I am, at best, still able to hold on to hope....

As always, America, I wanna hear what you think. Gimme an e-mail at either blackbeardian@yahoo.com or electric_pirates@hotmail.com .

Master Blackwolf